Built Environments Strike Right Chords In Rising Music Metros

Legendary Cain’s Ballroom is among the many buildings that assist make Tulsa, Okla. one in every of America’s most … [+] vital music metropolises.

Tyler Layne

Nashville has lengthy been often known as the “Music Metropolis.” And for a lot of, Austin additionally enjoys appreciable cachet as an American music capital. However myriad different city aspirants covet a fame as up-and-coming meccas for music lovers.

On this 111^th anniversary of the delivery of iconic “Mud Bowl Troubadour” Woody Guthrie, we prepare a white-hot highlight on the music-oriented actual property within the fast-growing metro proper up the highway from Guthrie’s birthplace, in addition to the music-focused constructed environments of two different rising music metropolises.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Guthrie was born in Okemah, Okla., not 24 hours however quite 65 miles from Tulsa, on July 14, 1912. T-City noticed that legacy and proximity by christening the Woody Guthrie Heart public museum and archives within the Tulsa Arts District a decade in the past. It is sensible, then, that Bob Dylan Heart, devoted to the life and works of the larger-than-life singer-songwriter whose best affect was Guthrie, opened in Tulsa final yr.

“I hear day by day, ‘Tulsa wasn’t actually on the map for me earlier than, however I heard concerning the Bob Dylan Heart and determined to come back go to,’ and so they go on to go to the opposite music points of interest,” says Steve Jenkins, director of The Bob Dylan Heart.

“The Dylan Heart has turn out to be a bonus for folks coming by way of Tulsa on tour. These band members routinely say, ‘Tulsa is absolutely occurring.’ There’s an important ecosystem right here of dwell music and music points of interest.”

The erstwhile Oil Capital of the World is dotted with an extended listing of shrines for lovers of music and music historical past. Cain’s Ballroom, unveiled in 1930 as “Cain’s Dance Academy,” has hosted such storied acts as Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, and lives on right this moment as a standing-room-only music setting, with reserved seating for particular reveals. Different magnets for music lovers embody The Colony, the place George Harrison as soon as performed an impromptu set; the jazz speakeasy LowDown; and Mercury Lounge, the setting for performances by the town’s best trendy people, nation and rock musicians.

One other treasure is The Church Studio, a church in-built 1915 that Tulsa-raised rock icon Leon Russell purchased in 1972 and transformed right into a recording studio and workplace of Shelter Information. Proprietor Teresa Knox stories Tom Petty was found at The Church Studio, and Willie Nelson, Stevie Marvel, J.J. Cale and Harrison all recorded there. Guests are welcome 10 to three p.m. Monday by way of Saturday to view a 6,000-piece assortment of memorabilia, starting from devices to handwritten lyrics.

Fort Wayne, Indiana

In case you’re out to earn a fame as a metropolis identified for music, it helps to be residence floor for the biggest on-site stock of any music retailer within the U.S. That’s the enviable distinction of the Hoosier State’s second-largest metropolis. Fort Wayne native Chuck Surack based Sweetwater Sound, which has grown to nearly 40,000 sq. ft of prime gear. In 2020, Sweetwater unveiled a brand new $52.5 million distribution middle 4 instances as giant as its former hub.

The brand new middle is residence to Sweetwater’s Guitar Gallery and Guitar Store, electronics restore, installations and extra. Sweetwater’s worldwide affect is such that 40 % of its workforce has moved to Fort Wayne from origins throughout the globe. Surack additionally owns Fort Wayne’s The Clyde Theatre at Quimby Village, a postwar-era film palace reworked right into a state-of-the-art dwell music efficiency corridor.

“Sweetwater and its 2,500 staff have performed an integral half in revitalizing the native and regional music scene,” stated CEO John Hopkins. “Because the nation’s largest on-line music instrument and professional audio gear retailers, we now have recruited among the most proficient musicians from everywhere in the world and helped them relocate to Fort Wayne. They kind bands, they write and report unique music and so they carry out dwell at numerous venues . . . The Sweetwater Academy has over 1,200 college students and is dedicated to creating and galvanizing the subsequent technology of music makers, who will guarantee a vibrant music scene in Northeast Indiana for years to come back.”

Chattanooga, Tennessee

The burg often known as “Scenic Metropolis” gained’t let Nashville garner all of the Tennessee glory as a music metropolis. The downtown district options the Chattanooga Choo Choo campus, residence to an array of music-centric settings. Amongst them is Songbirds Basis, a museum showcasing guitar collections spanning the Twenties to the ‘70s. The Sign music venue, internet hosting dwell music and inventive performances, is transferring to the previous Chattanooga Choo Choo Conference Heart to welcome extra artists and company and revitalize an present downtown cultural area. Historic Tivoli Theatre, Troopers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium and Walker Theatre are architecturally splendid music venues internet hosting scores of performances yearly.

Says Barry White, president and CEO of Chattanooga Tourism Co., “The Chattanooga Choo Choo is woven into the material of our metropolis’s wealthy historical past and can eternally have a spot within the Nice American Songbook, because of the legendary Glenn Miller.”